1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for the packaging of beverages in containers at controlled temperatures. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for rapidly filling containers such as flexible pouches with hot sterile juices in an automated process, and forming multi-pac packages of bundled pouches, without use of a separate cooling apparatus in the assembly line.
2. Description of Background Art
Filling of hot, sterile beverages into containers of any type; plastic, glass or metal, conventionally requires the use of a separate cooling station in the assembly line. These cooling stations are rather massive, having footprints of about five (5) by twenty (20 feet, and heights of six (6) to eight (8) feet. In addition, these coolers lower system throughput and efficiency. Furthermore, these coolers consume large amounts of energy to operate.
Heretofore, systems have been known for making and filling flexible pouches with hot pasteurized beverages such as juices in an assembly line, which ultimately bundle the flexible pouches into secondary packages, multi-pac packages such as six-packs, twelve-packs, or the like. In these conventional systems, the beverage to be filled into the flexible pouches is pasteurized by heating the beverage to a high temperature in the range of about 185xc2x0 F. These pasteurized beverages typically include a mixture of flavor concentrate and a diluent such as water. In these systems, the entire mixture of the water and juice concentrate is heated prior to filling the pouches at this high temperature. Therefore, once the flexible pouches are filled with this very hot beverage, it is necessary in the package-producing assembly line to pass the filled pouches through a cooling station to lower the temperature of these pouches to a temperature that can be effectively handled by the bundling and/or packaging machines. However, a cooling station of this type takes up a considerable amount of space and footprint area in the packaging factory, is expensive to operate, and slows down the overall processing rate.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a process and system for filling and manufacturing flexible-pouch, aseptic containers, or other types of containers in a more rapid fashion than heretofore possible at a lower cost, and with a much smaller overall footprint of the assembly line.
According to one aspect of the invention, a method for sterile packaging of beverages includes supplying a predetermined quantity of a beverage concentrate at a first predetermined temperature to a container such as a flexible pouch and, immediately thereafter, filling the container or pouch with a sterile, chilled, diluent such as water at a second predetermined temperature which is much lower than the first predetermined temperature. The resulting mixture of the concentrate and diluent is thereby cooled to a third predetermined temperature. The method also includes sealing the container to form a sterile package of beverage.
The present invention described herein is described with containers in the form of sterile flexible packages as a preferred embodiment, but use of the system and method of the present invention is also advantageous for filling of containers of any type.
According to another aspect of the invention, a system for sterile packaging of beverages includes a first filling device for supplying a predetermined quantity of a beverage concentrate at a first predetermined temperature to a container and a second filling device for immediately thereafter filling the container with a sterile, chilled, diluent at a second predetermined temperature which is much lower than the first predetermined temperature. The mixture of the concentrate and diluent is thereby cooled to a third predetermined temperature. The system also includes a mechanism for sealing the container to form a sterile package of beverage.
In a preferred embodiment, the first predetermined temperature of the beverage concentrate is about 185xc2x0 F., the temperature of the chilled diluent is about 35xc2x0 F., and the third predetermined temperature of the mixture of concentrate and diluent adjusts to about 100xc2x0 F. for equal volumes of concentrate and diluent. By lowering the temperature to about 100xc2x0 F., the packaging equipment in the assembly line can effectively handle the filled beverage pouches and bundle them into multi-pac packages without damaging the pouches. This is accomplished without the addition of a separate cooling station such as used in the prior art, which takes up a substantial amount of space, adds to the overall expense of the packaging assembly line, slows down the system throughput, and consumes large amounts of energy.
The overall assembly line may include, in addition, a station for adding a straw to the flexible package, a die-cutting station for separating a web of a plurality of flexible pouches into individual pouches following the filling thereof, marking the packages with identifying data such as dates; a weighing station for weighing the pouches to be sure that they have been properly filled; and a high-speed pick-and-place case-erecting, packing and closing machine at the end of the assembly line.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.